Some people are fans of their favorite team for a lifetime. Some fans now go beyond that. An eight-minute documentary on ESPN that featured a Baltimore funeral home talks about the fans and their families that realize that their passion for their favorite team was such a big part of their life, that why shouldn't it be a part of their,....after-life?
The part that focused on Baltimore spoke about a funeral home that flew Ravens flags on the hearse and other cars in the funeral procession. The documentary featured Kaczorowski Funeral Home in Baltimore, Maryland, and told the story of how they offer a casket in Baltimore Orioles colors licensed by Major League Baseball.
Towards the end of the video the Kaczorowski owner says, "People always say that when you're a fan, you're a fan for life. But that might be a little short-sighted."
(Read the full official press release after the 'Jump')
Latest ESPN Commercial Explores Fans’ Last Wishes
On Wednesday, Aug. 1, ESPN will launch the latest spots in the It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports campaign, exploring the trend of sports-themed funerals and expressions of fandom postmortem. Academy Award Winning Director Errol Morris was commissioned for the project, which includes 15, 30 and 60-second "trailers", as well as a short documentary about the phenomenon. Wieden + Kennedy NY serves as the creative agency for the campaign.
Funeral directors, tombstone makers and fans are among the subjects interviewed for the eight-minute documentary. Those featured include Kaczorowski Funeral Home in Baltimore, Md.; Coston Funeral Homes in Pittsburgh, Pa.; the Memorial Cemetery and Aggie Field of Honor in College Station, Texas; and Woodlawn Memorials in Boston, Mass. Representatives from each share stories about real fans who requested to be interred through sports-themed memorials.
One story describes a Pittsburgh Steelers fan whose family, instead of laying him in a casket, laid his body out in a recliner with his favorite team displayed on a nearby television. Another tells the story of a Dallas Cowboys fan whose friends and family dressed in Cowboys attire at her memorial to celebrate her fandom. And then there is a NASCAR fan who finally took a ride around a track when a driver agreed to carry an urn of his ashes in the racecar.
"Fans don’t just live and breathe sports. In many cases, they take their fandom to the grave," said Carol Kruse, senior vice president, marketing. "The last wishes chronicled here are extraordinary expressions of fandom that prove that nothing is crazy within the context of sports."
Morris previously directed the critically acclaimed The Fog of War, Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line and Standard Operating Procedure.
ESPN’s It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports campaign launched in July of 2010 and is designed to be a conversation with fans about those things that make sports inspiring, entertaining and dramatic.